Saturday, September 8, 2012

Dialogue tags (the
“he said” and “she called” that accompany dialogue in quotation marks) can be
some of the most annoying things to muck around with when it comes to writing,
and not simply because it’s a pain to figure out the proper rhythm of when to
use them and when to not. That’s a topic for another day. No, no, this covers
something that seems so simple it’s laughable.

What constitutes a dialogue tag?

Most people
immediately scoff and shake their heads in laughter. “It’s obvious!” they say. “If
it’s a verb that describes what someone could say, then it’s a dialogue tag.”
And certainly, there are some obvious ones. A person could say, yell, call, whisper, beg, confess, gloat, inquire, explain, and the rest.

But is it always so obvious? Is that why I
keep flipping open books and seeing sentences like:

“You’re so sweet,” she smiled.

“But,” I frowned, “where are we going to find enough
ninjas?”

Are “smile” and “frown”
dialogue tags words? Can they be used, in essence, to describe a tone of voice
or even a certain way that something is said?

Certainly not.

Words like smile, frown, and sneer tell us
what the character’s face is doing, but not their voice. Don’t use them for
dialogue tags. How could we fix those two shining examples from above?

Ah, simply
enough!

“You’re so sweet.” She smiled.

I frowned. “But where are we going to find enough
ninjas?”

Alternatively: “But—” I frowned. “—where are we going to
find enough ninjas?”

Ta-da! No need
for mucking around and trying to understand how a character could “smile” a
sentence.

A general rule of
thumb is this: Attempt to perform the action. If you have a character grimacing
a phrase or nodding a sentence, try to do the same! If no words come out of
your mouth—remember to do exactly
what your character is written as doing and nothing more—then it’s not a dialogue tag.

But wait! There’s
more!

What about words
like hiss, chirp, or snarl? They are
certainly sounds, aren’t they?

But can humans
make them?

In cases like this,
it depends on the context. There’s no hard and heavy rule of thumb to dictate
more animalistic sounds. Sometimes they are used to give the readers certain
connections with characters; for instance, a purring character causes one to think of that character as a
feline, including all of the characteristics that society has dumped onto
felines: That character is likely to beautiful, agile, sly, crafty, shrewd, and
perhaps snobbish, to give a taste. A single dialogue tag does wonders for
characterisation. Other times, the words have been given secondary definitions
by culture. The verb hiss, when
utilised as a dialogue tag, generally denotes a half-angry or urgent whisper,
which is definitely possible. With these sorts of words, each author must
decide for him or herself if it is being used properly.

So what’s the
point of all of this?

Careful with your
dialogue tags. Think before you write. And never, ever allow a character to “smile” dialogue.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Warning:
If you haven’t seen Avatar: The Last
Airbender and Legend of Korra,
the following won’t make a lot of sense.

Recently,
the hit animated series Legend of Korra
drew to a close for season one. And though it was fantastic, I found several
key issues due to the writing. As a writer and a literary critic, I decided to write
up this critique of this hallmark of American animation.

Let's
dig into why Legend
of Korra isn't quite as good as it could be.

Firstly,
I feel that twelve episodes was not long enough to tell the story. I am not
stating that it is rushed. What I am saying is that this forced the creators to
squander plot-lines, resolve issues rapidly, put off on character development,
and rely on telling-not-showing when it comes to certain things like romance. I
know that not everyone out there is a Kataangist, but let's examine that ship
for a moment. Whether you like it or not, the three-season, sixty-one-episode
build-up was masterfully done, and by the time Katara finally kissed Aang in
the finale, you could put your forefinger on the television screen and announce
that it was true love. You can say many, many things about Kataang, but one
thing that cannot be said is that it was forced in terms of development. Back to
my main point: Twelve episodes is not enough to tell the story of a revolution,
a corrupt politician, a love triangle, the spirits potentially making war on
the human realm [based off of The Revelation], and Korra becoming a
fully-realised Avatar, which took Aang sixty-one episodes to accomplish. I know
that LoK was intended from the beginning to be a mini-series, but that is not
an excuse to squander plot arcs, pigeon-hole characters, and ignore the
implications. Frankly, if you can't do it in twelve episodes, make more.

Secondly, there is the entire
Equalist revolution. The Revelation hints at a rift between the current Avatar
- who is spiritually unconnected - and Amon, the spirits' new mouthpiece.
However, this, along with the idea of Amon as the Dark Messiah, has been
completely ignored since then. I have not heard it brought up once, but you'd
think that the spirits speaking to a mortal man would be pretty significant,
especially if said mortal man went on to actually perform the 'miracle' of
taking away bending. Beyond that, the idea of a citizens' uprising, seen all
the way up to And the Winner Is..., was fantastic; unfortunately, the next time
the Equalist revolution comes into play, the uprising has devolved into another
army of faceless mooks akin to the masked firebenders making up the Fire Nation
army in ATLA. This completely obliterated the point. I had hoped that the
revolution would follow a historical, realistic revolutionary ideal, wherein
the citizens would up only to be pushed down once more by their glorious leader
once the revolution is complete. I was certain that we were going to have a
"the revolution ends when it hurts the people it was meant to help"
moment. Instead the revolution skipped from citizens' uprising to aforementioned
faceless mook army with enough resources to build copious amounts of airships,
mecha tanks, et cetera. I understand that Hiroshi Sato is helping them, but no
man could have that much money. It's ridiculous. While the idea of hiding out
in the sewers is beautiful, the sheer amount of stuff the Equalists
possess is ridiculous. The creators quite literally had the opportunity to play
out a true revolution made of ordinary citizens and instead portrayed the
Equalists as little more than an overcharged terrorist cell. Where are the
protests of the commoners? Where are the March on Washingtons? Where are the
Gandhis to represent the oppressed? Where are the Moseses trying to liberate
their people? For that matter, where are the Lenins organising the peasants or
the Hitlers charming their way through Germany? Nope. We don't get any of that.
Instead we only see a masked man and his massive artillery with his legions of
nameless cardboard cut-outs destined to be thrown at the protagonists for some
nice fight scenes or as a plot point of being chi-blocked.

Speaking of the Equalists,
whatever happened to the grey morality they were supposed to represent?
Nonbennders actually are being oppressed, for one. It's inevitable. We saw the
winds of it in ATLA, and we certainly see it in LoK. I could imagine
sympathising with them and the Equalists significantly. But the nonbenders,
outside of anger at Tarrlok pulling the power, seem to not care whatsoever,
while the Equalists have devolved into terrorists, turning the show into White
and Black Morality: While the Krew certainly makes mistakes, their actions are
most definitely protagonistic, while Amon's bombing of the city and whatnot are
portrayed as definitely antagonistic. Urch. It's the same issue I had with Ozai
in ATLA: He was shown to be evil. That's it. Certainly he was a civil evil, but
at the end of the day, there was no moment of mixed morality. It's for reason
that Ozai is not my favourite villain, while Azula and Long Feng are two of my
favourites; even Zhao was more chaotic neutral and had his own motivations. I
thought that that had changed with Amon, who was even shown rescuing Korra
unintentionally in Out of the Past. But no, now the Equalists are the evil army
again, boo hoo, and it's up to the Avatar to rid the world of evil.

I'm going to take a quick break
to discuss characters like Toza. You'd think that, since he more or less saved
Mako and Bolin from the street, after the Pro-bending Arena was bombed, the
fabulous bending brothers would at least try to see if he's okay. But they
didn't. Instead, they immediately went off to pack for a stay at the Satos'.
What? We've been introduced to so many wonderful characters, like Skoochy, only
to have them never brought up again. I understand that that's life. But occasionally
it's unrealistic, as in the Toza case, unless that happened off-screen. Why
even design and bring in Toza as this apparently parental figure for Mako and
Bolin only to give him four or five lines of dialogue centred around Korra's
bathroom needs? On a note of praise, I'm very glad to see that Gommu, the wise
and noble hobo, is back in the finale.

Moving on. Scrapped plot-lines.
We continuously see arcs brought up short. The most notable and immediately
presentable of these is Tarrlok. After having been introduced initially as a
potential ally, albeit one of whom Tenzin did not approve, Tarrlok was
transformed into an enemy possibly worse than Amon, since at least Amon's
actions are painted with a greyer morality; however, he is abruptly taken down
to unimportant status by the next episode. In the same vein, in The Voice in
the Night, the flashback arc is introduced - remember that Korra has had issues
with her spirituality and meditation since the first episode - and it builds to
a climax in Out of the Past, where Korra is stressfully placed into a metal box
for hours, if not days, and prohibited access to food or water. Entirely
stressed and trembling with anxiety, Korra attempts to meditate . . . and
succeeds in the most sudden and anticlimactic way possible. It left me with
quite the bitter taste of disappointment in my mouth, as I had expected her to
receive more disjointed flashbacks, then figure out the rest for herself .
Whatever happened to her issues with meditation, particularly in such a stressful
situation? Also, it wasn't very helpful to Korra after she was
kidnapped; the new knowledge did absolutely nothing to help her situation
beyond using it as an reasoning behind the non-full-moon-powered
bloodbending. Another thing that bugs me is that "Tarrlok is Yakone's
son" is for some reason considered a valid explanation of his bloodbending
powers. How does that explain how Yakone got his powers then? It's treated as
though "everything makes sense now". But it doesn't, because the entire
bloodbending without a full moon idea is another aborted arc. And this isn't a
new occurrence, either. Take Borra. It was first hinted at in A Leaf in the
Wind with the line about Bolin believing Korra to be special and tantalisingly
pushed in The Voice in the Night. By The Spirit of Competition, Bolin was so in
love with Korra that he was able to work up the nerve to ask her out. By the
next episode - and confirmed in Out of the Past - Bolin claimed to be over her.
What? Love doesn't work like that. It's not about what you ship, it's the
simple fact that if Bolin has been crushing on Korra for several episodes, he
wouldn't just "get over it" in ten seconds flat. It's an
unrealistically aborted arc. On a side note, whatever happened to the turf war
brewing in The Revelation? Right, another abandoned arc. If you're going to
bring in an arc like Tarrlok or Borra, you have to paint it realistically,
and you can't drop it the moment it climaxes. There's always a resolution
period, which didn't happen in any of these cases.

I've now covered three major
points: The shortening of the story, the Equalist revolution, and the aborted
arcs. You're starting to see a pattern here, I'm certain. Now, the entire
love triangle and character development, which must be covered as one. Note: This is a ship-neutral section.
Think for a moment of the characters who have received the most character
development. Keeping that in mind, think of the characters who have been
sidelined. I would guess that many of you instantly jumped to Bolin as a perfect
example: In the past few episodes, he has received almost no dialogue beyond
telling Asami about the kiss. But I would also say that Mako has not received
very much character development either; most of his development is centred
about the love triangle. He's alternatively hot and cold to the other
characters, he has been characterised quite well, and he has certainly shown
off some badass bending, but - and here's the important bit - he hasn't learned anything
new. There has been little growth in his character. Even though he is receiving
screen time, he is not experiencing an arc of development other than "fall
for Asami, then fall for Korra". That there is a perfectly valid story
arc; I'm not criticising the very realistic idea that a man could fall
in love with two women, nor the fact that Mako is leaving Asami for Korra, nor
even the game he's playing between them [again, it's realistic]. What I am
criticising boils down to his lack of personal development. Take Asami, who has
received the most character development out of the Krew save perhaps for Korra
herself, going from a weak Daddy's girl to a kickass warrior goddess, similar
to Katara's arc in ATLA. Episode by episode, you can see Asami growing
stronger, even through all of the pain she'd had cast on her. Asami's arc is,
in my opinion, one of the strongest points in the show, because it has been
done masterfully and, I'll stress again, realistically. When Asami first
appeared in The Voice in the Night, I disliked her for being little more than
an "obstacle" for Korra to overcome in her pursuit of Mako; she did
not have very much personality beyond her need for protection, which Mako was
more than happy to provide. I actively wished her to drop away from the show.
However, after following this arc for this long, I can say that Asami has
grown, dumbfoundingly, into one of my favourite characters on the show. This
character development has taken place mostly as a result of influences outside
the love triangle, such as her father's betrayal, but also came partly because
Mako started to protect Korra instead of Asami, and Asami filled in that
protection gap.

But why am I going on and on
about Asami? Asami is an example of some serious character development
occurring in the span of a few episodes without feeling jarring in any way.
This lets me know that the wonderful team creating the show can write character
arcs in a short period of time. But they're not, which infuriates me. Again,
returning to Bolin: There were so many places he could have been taken, but
instead he was demoted to comic relief because he is not part of the love triangle.
Asami, Korra, and Mako are receiving screen time to expound the love triangle;
Bolin's most recent serious appearance was . . . talking to Asami about the
love triangle. Er. Okay. Let's take a look-see at Mako and Korra's arcs, then.
Korra has most definitely grown from the impulsive, headstrong girl of the
earlier episodes and has become more patient and understanding while still
being strong in spirit [at least most of the time, but I'll come back to that
shortly], as emphasised by her exchange with Tenzin regarding the Equalists in
Turning the Tides. No problem. Korra is a fantastic character, and I admire her
for many reasons. Mako, too, is fantastic, and it's for this reason that I
selected him as the point of view character for a fanon of mine called Scarf. I bring that up
because, in writing him outside of a love triangle context, I adore him for his
strength, his resilience, his intelligence, his inner flame, and his brotherly
love for Bolin. I know that he is a good person at heart, but due to the show's
focus on the love triangle, we as the audience are instead seeing the jerky
side of his personality caused naturally by the two beautiful women wanting him.
I suppose it sickens me to see such a great character devolved into a weak
"prize" at the end of Korra's tunnel of tribulations; I feel cheated,
as a viewer, to watch him act like this when I know he can do so much better.
Like all characters, Mako has flaws, with his white knight syndrome and his
struggle to properly express his emotions, but I adore him all the more for it:
One's imperfections make one perfect. What I can't stand is this feeling of,
well, losing what could have been my favourite character. And there's one more
thing about his character I don't like . . . the way wherein he turns Korra
into a wet rag. Now wait a moment. Don't click away yet. Let me explain what I
mean by that. If you look at Korra's recent moments, when she's by herself, she
tends to be a bamf, a strong character, and overall an amazing person up to
whom I could even look. But put her in a scene with Mako, and she becomes
flustered and raggedy. That makes sense. Think about some of the Kataang scenes
from ATLA: Aang was certainly flustered, for instance, in the beginning of The
Cave of Two Lovers or The Headband. On the other hand, there were plenty of
Kataang scenes not involving fluster. Fine, you say, we have those two, in Out
of the Past. At the end of that episode - which has already been analysed
multiple times as to why Mako should not have been the one to carry her to the
bison - Korra is lying in Mako's arms in one of the sweetest scenes in
animation history. Unfortunately, Korra is sporting the most uncharacteristic
serene expression on her face, an expression about as appropriate for her as a
Meelo expression for Lin Beifong. I was expecting Korra to break down as
she did at the end of The Voice in the Night, considering how weary, defeated,
and battered she was, but that serene expression was so out of place that I
still cannot quite get over it. That expression did not belong on her face.
That expression was . . . submissive.
In order to woo Mako, Korra has submitted to him. Where's that fiery, flirty
Korra from the first few episodes, the Korra whom I could imagine with Mako,
the Korra who kept her flame even when she flustered, like in the scene on Air
Temple Island from The Revelation? Gone. Replaced with a submissive,
desiring-of-protection Korra, a Korra that of course is more attractive to the
protective Mako. It's nearly as though Korra and Asami are switching
personalities, as if they are on a inversely sliding scale of bamfness together
and cannot both be bamfs at the same time. The base line is this: Korra is
amazing. Mako is amazing. Put them together, and they turn into a wet rag and a
jerk, respectively. Again, I feel cheated out of the fiery Korra and the serious
but intriguing Mako I absolutely loved, and it's why I find it
difficult to support Makorra, since it is twisting my two former favourites.

Note: At heart, I'm a canonite,
so I'll ship whatever happens in the show. That's not my issue.

Another issue I have is the
underbelly of the city. Again, as with the Equalist revolution, the show had so
much potential. In the first few episodes, they were fine with showing poverty,
discussing triads, and introducing characters who had grown up on the street.
Recently, however, that seems to have been ignored. Again, why aren't the
Equalists stirring the poor? To paraphrase Emmanuel Goldstein from 1984, the Middle will
always entice the Low to revolution, which causes the Middle to become the Top.
It's how revolutions work. And the Equalists would no doubt be able to recruit
the poor easily, especially considering that most of them are implied to be
nonbenders. From where are all these chi-blockers coming? Seemingly nowhere.
But I digress again. From the first several episodes, I was certain that we
were going to see the seedy, depressing underbelly, particularly with the
brewing triad turf war that . . . was never mentioned again. At least in the
released clips for the finale, we see Gommu and a bit of poverty, but it seems
to be mostly played for laughs in the clip we saw. LoK is dark enough to show
poverty, but it refuses to do so. Even Mako and Bolin appeared in the show only
after they were rescued from poverty. Such great potential. But nope. Though
this is more of a stylistic issue with which I specifically have a problem, so
I won't go into this one, even though they hinted at it in the first few
episodes.

To take a quick break, I'm
going to discuss the comic relief. ATLA was ingenious for the ways in which it
meshed serious action and much-needed comic relief. In general, however, it had
light-hearted episodes and serious episodes: Though there were usually both
funny and serious scenes in each episode, there was an overall feel to each
episode as well. Because LoK has only twelve episodes, it had to condense each
one, but this also meant cutting out the transitions between funny and serious.
It also means that more intelligent humour can't be used, because that takes
time, so they've come to rely on my least favourite brand of it. Fart jokes.
Every time I see Meelo come on-screen, I quiver with fear that he's going to
come out with another fart joke or, worse, a line that befits a three-year-old.
Meelo, according to the creators, is five years of age. What five-year-old
informs his new caretaker than he has to defecate? Meelo of the never-ending
flatulence has managed to ruin the best moments, like the Team Avatar moment in
When Extremes Meet, or the completely serious scene of Lin Beifong fighting the
Equalists. Both of these were randomly plucked from memory. In the former, just
as I thought the Krew was - at last - functioning as a unit, Meelo popped in
with a fart. What? In the latter, Meelo not only uses fartbending in the most
inappropriate way possible, but we even have the privilege of a slo-mo on his
contorted face for a few moments. This destroyed the very serious and very
pulse-pounding momentum of the scene. It felt like, I don't know, the famous
battle from 300 suddenly
being interrupted by Timon and Pumbaa dressing in drag and doing the
hula. When the character designs were announced at Comic-Con last year,
Meelo was originally my favourite of the airbender kids. He's become my least
favourite character of the show. Say what you will about Bolin's style of
comic relief, but at least it's somewhat humorous, at least to me.
Whenever Bo opens his mouth, I end up smiling. It's definitely not fart jokes.

On an unrelated note, I'm very,
very intrigued as to why Mako never had an issue with firebending, particularly
after his parents' death at the hands of one. That would most definitely stir
up my sympathies for him. Think about the shot in Out of the Past when Mako
held the Equalist up to the wall and was quite literally about to burn the
Equalist's face off. Why didn't that trigger any bells? Imagine if we had at
some point had Mako have a heart-to-heart with Bolin [when's the last brotherly
moment we had between them?] or even, in the next episode, with Korra. I
wouldn't mind such a wonderful and actually deep Makorra moment. Sadly, Mako
carried on as though nothing had happened. If you give your character a
traumatic past - remember that Mako watched his
parents be cut down right in front of him - then you need to bring that in. Or
have Mako mention it as an offhand remark. Something. Even say to Korra,
"When I was little, I couldn't firebend for a long time. I kept
remembering my parents dying. It took me a long time to forgive myself."
Really, anything. Ironically, Asami's mother was burned by a firebender; Asami,
too, is burned, albeit in a different way, by another firebenders. Anyway, in
ATLA, after Aang went Avatar State in The Desert, he and Katara spoke about it
in The Serpent's Pass. They didn't just "drop it". The creators knew
they had to bring that back. Nearly burning someone's face off is pretty darn
rewarding of such a scene, or even one remark. One. And that brings me to my
next point.

For my seventh and final point,
here's one thing I truly and sincerely miss about ATLA but that, in my opinion,
is vital in any heartfelt show: Conversations between two characters. Toph and
Iroh in The Chase. Aang and Katara in The Serpent's Pass. Zuko and Katara in
The Crossroads of Destiny. Sokka and Toph in The Runaway. And, of course, the
many, many scenes between Iroh and Zuko. There were even entire episodes
devoted to them, like The Guru, The Firebending Masters, or The Southern
Raiders. Those are simply a few examples plucked from the top of my head.
Those are the scenes that provide the most character development, and most of
them weren't filler as much as they were explorations of the characters, explorations
that them so much more three-dimensional. In Legend of Korra, the ones we saw in the
first few episodes - between Tenzin and Korra, Korra and Mako, and even Korra
and Bolin in The Spirit of Competition - breathed life in the characters.
Unfortunately, recently, the only scenes like that recently have been centred
about the love triangle and are not explorations of the characters but of the
[quite shallow] romance. Even in the clip, we see Mako and Korra's conversation
that adds nothing to either character. We already know that Korra thinks Mako
is amazing, and we already know that Mako has feelings for Korra. In fact, the
only thing that that scene did was make me remember a very similar scene in The
Spirit of Competition, wherein Bolin also spouts off a list of adjectives and
makes Korra blush. I also find it ironic that Mako calls Korra loyal when he
himself is being disloyal to Asami; say that you will about Makorra or Masami,
but I daresay we can all agree that Mako is being disloyal to her [I didn't say
cheating on her. I said disloyal]. I suppose that the phase regarding his
life without Korra in it appeared a tad out of character for Mako, but that's
not my problem with the scene. There have been plenty
of opportunities for two-character scenes, as I call them. For
instance, in When Extremes Meet, when Pabu found Korra, I was certain we were
going to receive, at last, a friendship scene between Bolin and Korra. It could
have been thirty seconds long, and then Mako and Asami could have joined them.
Or in this past episode, a scene of any two characters - any two - discussing
the fact that the city of being destroyed. I think that's a pretty big deal. So
why we getting none of it? In fact, Bolin hasn't spoken to Korra at all
since The Spirit of Competition, a fact I find . . . disappointing, if not
straight-up heart-beaking. You would think that there would at least be a bit
of wrap-up other than "I'm friendzoning everyone". I mean, at least
there should have been a friendship scene to let us know that they are still
friends. Because of this lack of two-character scenes, I don't actually know
how the Krew interacts. How does Bolin feel about Mako for taking Korra? Are
Asami and Bolin friends? Are Korra and Bolin friends? What about Korra and
Asami? Whereas in ATLA, I could quite easily see the strings connecting the
members of the Gaang - in other words, I knew how two characters would interact
if put in a scene together - I have no idea when it comes to the Krew. For all
of these episodes wherein they've been a team, I still don't know their
interactions with each other, to the point where I'm not even convinced that
Bolin exists in the minds of Korra and Asami. Maybe those "Bolin is
secretly a figment of Mako's imagination" theories are true. That was a
joke. Don't quote me out of context. Anywho, the shift from Masami to Makorra
has also left the romance feeling quite shallow and unstable, the point where
even if Makorra happens at the end of season one, I wouldn't put all my eggs in
its basket. I don't see any "true" love yet, not in any shipping; I
do not count Bolin's "real love" comment to actually mean "real
love", as it sounded more like a throwaway line. I understand that they
are teenagers, but this means that whatever ship happens in the end might not
last. Naturally, we have a season two that may fix all of these issues, but at
the moment I see no true love. The closest we have is Korra's infatuation with
Mako, and frankly it is my belief that she is infatuated with the idea of him rather
than the person. She has cemented him as the perfect man, as the prize on which
to keep an eye, as the motivation to save Republic City, and I doubt that she
has given very much thought on their relationship in the long run. Korra is so
convinced that Mako is the one that she didn't even give Bolin a chance
beyond one date that ended on a Makorra kiss. That's not what I'd like to see
in a heroine. What that teaches children is that it's okay to pursue and flirt
with someone else's girlfriend/boyfriend, as you will be rewarded in the end.
Korra's decision at the end of The Aftermath showed her true maturity and her
character growth, but abruptly we returned to the "hanging on Mako"
side of her. It felt like yet another aborted arc, one jarring enough to make
me reconsider what defines Korra as a person.

Are these all of the issues
with LoK? Certainly not. I wrote this entire thing in one crazed sitting. Am I
saying that LoK is bad? Certainly not. It remains my favourite show out there
at the moment, and I am completely in love with it. Yet these issues do remain.

Thank you for sticking with me.

TL;DR: Legend of Korra is
an amazing show. But twelve episodes were not enough to tell its story.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

When I was a little girl, I used to watch my father as he stood by the covered up window and swayed back and forth, his black skullcap sitting softly upon his head, his eyes reverently closed, his lips moving silently in prayer. He would wash after waking up every morning and say grace after every meal, and he taught me to do the same. He taught me what to eat, what to say, what to do, every day.

I tread in his footsteps, and he tread in God’s.

Most importantly, perhaps, he taught me to say Kaddish for the dead, even though I was a girl, for there were often not enough to say it otherwise—and it was the Kaddish that we, the Jews of the Soviet Union, recited every other day as the religious were, one by one, shot, beaten, whisked away to Siberia forever . . .

We were strolling through the park when they, the men in black, took my mother, took her screaming and crying, took her and raped her and bludgeoned her until her blood splattered the snow scarlet and her black-and-blue body, shattered bones slicing through pale flesh, lay broken on the frozen streets of Lvov.

It would not be until years later that I realized my mother had been one of the Revolutionaries who fought and died for our freedom.

I never understood why we couldn’t pray in public. I would fish my twenty-three kopeks from my pocket and receive a plate with a single piece of skinny sausage, a few dollops of mashed potato, and a glass of hot kampot—peasant food, yes, but pleasant food as well. Lunch in hand, I would sit next to my friends, their blue eyes contrasting strikingly with my own dark-brown, and wonder why I could not say grace after the meal . . . and whether God would still love me if I didn’t.

Slowly, things began to change, ever so subtly. My father started to work longer nights and would come home in the early morning, his eyes red and underlined with dark circles, only to leave at sunrise. He always left enough rubles for me to afford food, clothing, and heating, but I almost never saw him, being mostly asleep when he returned. One night, I sat awake until I saw him open the door, and I called his name, but he simply collapsed upon the couch, clearly too exhausted to function, his briefcase thudding dully to the ground.

Oh, how I wanted to grasp it with quivering hands, to steady my fingers enough to open the golden clasps, to peer inside both it and my father’s mind at once, but I knew it was not my place to do so, and I quelled the fiery curiosity that burned in my heart.

By the time I had awakened the following morning, he was gone, but something felt . . . amiss . . . as if there were demons lurking in the room. Shuddering and thinking of their wicked smirks, devilish wit, and feet of geese, I gathered my belongings, ate a slice of rye bread with a bit of cheese saved from yesterday’s lunch and opened the door to face another dreary day of drizzle.

My leather partfel tucked under one arm, I strode along the sidewalk and turned left at the corner to enter the park, still and silent this time of winter. A few stragglers pulled their threadbare overcoats tighter to their bodies and hurried on.

Clearly, I wasn’t the only one uneasy of the goings-on of this particularly mournful morning.

Up ahead, the victuals queue stretched beyond the visible avenue and snaked through the streets as each person, loaded with empty jugs and platters, stood—the lucky ones for perhaps four or five hours—to purchase his meager dole of meatless bones, watered-down milk, and sausages filled with paper and straw. As I paused at the edge of the stone to watch them shuffle along for a few moments, I heard a shout behind me.

“You! Jew!”

My blood froze instantly, becoming perhaps a degree Celsius warmer than the deathly grip of cold about me. I turned to see them, the men in black, rocks and bludgeons in hand, moving towards me, and I wondered if inside their boots were feet not of humans but of geese.

“Jew!”

I began to move. I knew not from where my sudden speed sprang, but I could feel the angels running beside me, pulling me, directing me to queue where I would be safe. I felt God with me in in every moment, in every footstep, in every breath.

I would outrun them.

I heard them cursing behind me, yelling sukka and zidovskaya morda and skateena, but I was decimeters away from the crowd, and I felt the angels’ hands carry me the last leg of the journey. I landed on my belly on the sidewalk, but I was unscathed, and I shakily stood and started to dash through the throng. Like Moses before the Red Sea, I watched in wonder as the queue parted and let me through.

I took a single step.

And the line surged forward.

Hand grabbed my wrists, my thighs, my hair—and pulled.

The crowd had not parted. It had merely regrouped.

I gazed up at them, a girl of fourteen, my lips parted, the words spilling forth: “Oh please, help me, help me—we are all children—oh please—look into your hearts—help me! Help me! Please!”

They threw me into the snow, and I screamed, every piece of hurt—and yet the pain was not finished.

The men in black, the Nationalists, approached, twirling large wooden clubs, speaking to each other in dark voices.

I spied an alleyway, and, though every moment hurt my bruised body, I started forward only to feel a sudden weight press painfully in between my shoulder blades; my spine strained and threatened to snap, and the boot pushed harder.

I could smell vodka on their breaths.

“She knows nothing. She is to be merely killed, like her father.”

“Out in the street? Comrade, I do not—”

“One is not to question the authority, comrade. There are other Jews about. It is to be a sign for them—a warning.”

Some words I couldn’t quite catch were exchanged, and the pressure of the boot was relieved. Immediately, I sprang forward, uncoiling like a viper, my muscles stretching to the point of breakage—

And lightning fell from the sky and struck me in the small of the back, sending cascades of white-hot pain coursing through my veins. The thunder echoed as the lightning struck again and again on my shoulders—anguish—my head—agony­—and my soft neck—a crack—an explosion of pain—pain—pain—

snow

pain

splattered

pain

scarlet

pain

darkness—

Things happen, and we cannot prevent them. In the Soviet Union, no one was allowed to practice his or her religion, on pain of death. In America, we have been blessed with the freedom of religion. Diversity means that we can worship freely without ever fearing conversion, ignorance, and death.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Karen Pokras Toz is a writer, wife and mom. Karen grew up in Orange, Connecticut and graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Finance. She also attended the University of Richmond, where she studied law and business, receiving both a JD and an MBA. Karen has spent the last several years working as a tax accountant, writing in numbers. She recently discovered a passion for writing with words. In June 2011, Karen published her first children’s novel Nate Rocks the World. She is currently working on the second book in the Nate Rocks series to be published in 2012, and she is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), Association of Independent Authors (AIA), and the Independent Author Network (IAN).

Nicole: When did you start writing? Has writing always been a big part of your life? Will it continue to be?

Karen: I only start writing about a year and a half ago. In my *other* life, I work as an accountant – I’ve always been a numbers person, but now that I’ve discovered writing, I feel like I’ve opened up a whole different side of myself. Yes – I would hope writing continues to be a big part of my life.

N: What inspired you to begin writing?

K: It’s hard to say. I had been carrying around an idea for a book for many years now, but was never able to figure out how to write it. At some point in 2010, I decided it was time to put pen to paper (or in my case – fingers to keyboard!)

N: Name your favorite book. What is it about it you like?

K: I don’t know that I have a favorite book – I love so many books! The Harry Potter series ranks up there, though. Besides the fact that the stories are wonderful, I love that they are books my entire family can read and enjoy and talk about together.

K: Well of course, I love Nate, but I think the character who I love the most is Claudia Rockledge (Nate’s Mom). Poor Claudia – bless her heart – she so wants to be the perfect homemaker and mother, but unfortunately everything she touches just turns into a hot mess. But see, Claudia really has no clue about any of it - her husband and kids perfected the art of nodding and smiling, leading her to believe she is great at anything she tries. Come to think of it – my husband and kids nod and smile a lot ... hmmm.

K: At the moment I’m working on the second book in the Nate Rocks series. There is a character in that story who is bully. I really do not like him, but I’m working hard to find him some redeeming traits.

N: What genre is your favorite to read? To write? Why?

K: I actually love to read literary fiction – character driven stories are my favorite. I love the way they explore human nature and relationships. When it comes to writing though, I love to write funny and adventurous stories for kids. I think it’s because as a kid I loved to read, and more and more I see kids reaching for video games over books. I feel as though if they had something fun to read, they’d think about picking up a book the next time they are looking for something to do.

N: If you could become one of your characters, who would it be and why? What would you do differently in your story?

K: Oh well, I would love to become Nathan. Who wouldn’t want to be the star of their own adventures and fantasies? My fantasies of course would be a bit different than a ten-year-old boy’s fantasies– (no not that!!) They would definitely involve a shopping spree (or two.)

N: How do you write? Do you have a special place, do you listen to music, how much do you write a day, etc.?

K: I write whenever I can find a quiet space and a good amount of uninterrupted time. I used to set my alarm to wake up before everyone else just to write, but now that all three of my children are in school (yay.) I mostly write during the day when it’s just me and the cats here at home.

N: Okay . . . random question time. If you could get away with just one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

K: Oh I have such a long list! Are you sure I can only pick one thing? Okay – it would have to be that I would never have to do laundry again.

N: If you could go back five (or ten or twenty) years in time, what writing advice would you give yourself?

K: Just do it! Don’t wait until you are forty-something to start writing!!

Thanks for that marvelous interview! You can find out more at karentoz.com or swing over to Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com to purchase this astounding piece of literature.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

This week, we've got a graphic designer/cover artist/author/super mom - in her own words - on the hot seat. The writer of the extraordinary Brothers in Betrayal, Heidi Sutherlin is a kind and lovely woman in person, and her vast variety of talents make her unique.

Let's go!

Nicole: When did you start writing? Has writing always been a big part of your life? Will it continue to be?

Heidi: I've always written. I was the editor of my newspaper in high school, started out as a Journalism major in college before switching to Graphic Design. I didn't think seriously about writing a novel until my sister in law wrote her first and then her second book. My mom had always wanted me to write one and I thought to myself, "I could do that." What started out as an idle challenge, has since turned into one published book and five more in progress.

N: What inspired you to begin writing?

H: My mom. I've always been reading which naturally was the counterpart to writing. My mom writes beautifully and was always encouraging me in my own words. She taught me to read long before I went to school and gifted me with the love of stories.

N: Name your favorite book. What is it about it you like?

H: This is a tough one because I have many "favorites," but if I had to pick just one it would be a series the Sign of the Seven Trilogy by Nora Roberts. I like these three books because they combine a sense of community, a great ensemble cast, a solidparanormal aspects and suspense all in one. Nora Roberts does a wonderful job of painting a community so that you fall in love with it as much as your characters. The cast of characters, a group of six people come together and bond through their trials and the task of defeating evil. The Three Sisters Island Series also by Nora Roberts would be a close second for all of the same reasons.

H: My favorite character comes from a comic book, Tank Girl. She is irreverent, kind, vicious, revolutionary, sarcastic, loyal and has a wicked sense of humor. She is motivated by loyalty, a very personal code of honor and a wonderful sense of fun. What's not to love there?

H: I don't have a least favorite character, because I have a healthy appreciation of all characters even, sometimes especially, the evil ones.

N: What genre is your favorite to read? To write? Why?

H: My favorite genre is Romance - Suspense, Paranormal and Category. I live for the eventual happy ending, even if I have to drag my characters through terror and mayhem to get there. Although my first love has always been Science Fiction, I'm waiting to write in that genre until I'm more confident in my world building skills.

N: If you could become one of your characters, who would it be and why? What would you do differently in your story

H: At this moment, I'd want to be Grace the heroine of BROTHERS IN BETRAYAL, because she's edgy, adorable and has really great taste in shoes - Dr Martens, to be precise. However, when I inevitably fall for each character I'm writing tend to try them all on as I go.

N: How do you write? Do you have a special place, do you listen to music, how much do you write a day, etc.?

H: I write in binges, sitting down and writing 10-20k in a couple or three days. Then nothing for a week or two, sometimes longer. When I discipline myself, I can be more consistent, but I plot in my head and so when I'm ready then I sit down and let it all out. I do all of my writing at my desk and listen to appropriate music for the book I'm working on at the moment. I always write at night, as I'm a night owl.

N: Okay . . . random question time. Pirate or ninja? Which one would you rather be, and about which one would you rather write? Why?

H: Definitely Team Ninja. I'd most definitely rather write about ninjas. As a matter of fact there's a small ninja joke in this book, as I've been pro ninja for years. It's sort of a running joke between my editor and I. "Ninjas made me do it," is my favorite excuse.

N: If you could go back five (or ten or twenty) years in time, what writing advice would you give yourself?

H: If I could go back ten years or so, I'd tell recently-finished-with-college me to sit down and write a little every day. To not wait around until I'd formulated the perfect sentence in my mind, but rather, to allow the right sentences to evolve on the paper as they should.

And now, Heidi's own question to me: If you could blame ninjas for one thing and consistently be forgiven for that ONE THING, what would it be?

N: . . . all the food gone from the fridge. It was ninjas, I tell you.

You can check out Brothers in Betrayal by hopping over to its ebook format, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Paperback copies are available through the publisher Brazen Snake Books on their website, brazensnakebooks.com.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Teaching kids about money is one of the major concerns of parents today. How can it be done in such a way that makes sense to their young minds?

It’s important to introduce them to money as soon as possible and make sure to teach them the differences between needs and wants—and why needs are more important. Similarly, you should always stressed saving and setting goals over spending. In fact, when it comes time to assign an allowance, make sure that they set aside some money for saving; it may even be wise to open them their own savings account, assuming one can be found that does not require a large opening balance. Teach them to save up for the toys—and later iPods and even cars—they desire.

Make sure to explain how credit cards work—and about borrowing and interest. Specifically, ensure that you make out borrowing to seem like a nightmare, which it usually is, rather than the money bonanza that causes many to “blow-up” financially. Don’t allow a child or teenager control of a credit card, even for “emergencies”; instead, perhaps a debit card would be more useful. It’s been statistically shown that teenagers usually use credit cards for anything and everything, rather than merely emergencies, no matter how quick to follow the rules they usually are.

And speaking of interest, help your child learn the math—oh no, the horror!—of interest rates. Show them how, when coupled with interest over months or years, that relatively small upfront cost might balloon several-fold.

Include real-life examples in their education, such as grocery shopping, saving wisely on clothing and school supplies, and even calculating the tip for a restaurant bill.

Of course, the individual education of the child should be tailored to fit that child’s needs, but ultimately, the most important lesson your children should walk away with is that one shouldn’t fear money, budgeting, and the complexities of the financial world. With a little common sense and money smarts, they’ll be just fine.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

This week, I’m shaking things up a little with a guest post by the brilliant Debbie Kump. Enjoy!

These days, technological innovations occur at an amazing rate. When I was in Fourth grade, my Girl Scout Troop went on a tour of a computer because none of us had ever seen one before. The machine (a single computer, I kid you not) took up an entire room the size of our local McDonalds. When I went to college, my roommate’s desktop Apple was as powerful as the computers used to launch the Apollo Astronauts to the Moon. Nowadays, computers of that speed can fit in the palm of your hand. My third year teaching, I instructed my Eighth grade students in Seattle how to surf the Web since many had never been on the Internet before. And last week, I showed my sons a manual typewriter like the one I used to write stories as a teen. They thought it was cool to watch the arms swing up and jam together when they pressed several keys at once. Personally, I never found it that cool when my fingers were covered in ink and White-Out as I tried to correct mistakes, hoping to prevent myself from retyping the entire page.

With our culture’s increasing dependence on 3G and 4G cell phones, I have often wondered what will come next. One day at breakfast about two years ago, my husband (who is a bit of a futurist) described the idea of contact lenses that contained virtual computer screens accessible through the blink of an eye. His suggestion inspired my debut novel: an Apocalyptic Thriller entitled, 7G.

Building off our current 3G and 4G technology, 7G takes a leap into the near future when Smartphones will be obsolete. In this story, everyone uses contact lens-sized, extended wear, virtual computer screen and keyboard Digital Optic/Ophthalmic Transmitters, collectively referred to as “DOTS,” and small mobile uplinks. In the military, submariners use night vision capabilities to safely navigate from one part of the sub to another, while Marines stationed to regions of conflict within the perpetually war-torn areas of the Middle East use infrared heat signature modes to locate their enemies…and ensure their own survival. Civilians use eye and ear DOTS to surf the Internet, send a text, or read ebooks. Kids use them to watch movies and play on-line video games. Even babies piggyback off their parents’ mobile uplinks, napping to classical melodies.

With the upcoming conversion to 7G Network allowing instantaneous optical and audio recording, limitless military and civilian applications abound. Yet an unexpected programming glitch proves fatal, spelling disaster for the nation. In the aftermath of 7G, the fates of college sophomore Erik Weber and submariner Alyssa Kensington entwine, making the reader wonder if these protagonists will escape and manage to survive in a crippled world.

While editing my manuscript for 7G on a flight to my parents’ house over the Christmas holidays, my husband whipped out the SkyMall magazine, pointing to a pair of glasses that provided a GPS digital reading of the wearer’s location.

I blinked, studying the glasses again. A chill ran down my spine.

“Freaky,” I told him, my pen poised over a scene where compulsive gamers developed eye shakes when their pupils flitted rapidly back and forth to reach the desired keys on their virtual keyboard eye DOTS.

Then this summer, as my husband was enjoying Eoin Colfer’s recent Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, he paused to have me read a paragraph. In this selection, a centaur named Foaly placed a monocle over one eye to interface with a virtual system through a series of blinks and winks rather than using hardwired equipment.

Barely believing my eyes, I read the paragraph a second time, wondering when this type of technology will no longer be a work of fiction. Will a time come when all information is easily accessible on contact lenses like the eye DOTS from 7G?

Once again, these advancements beg to question, What’s next?

Thanks for that amazing look at the possible future! After graduating from Cornell University with degrees in Biology and Education, Debbie Kump taught middle and high school science in Maui, Seattle, and the Twin Cities and worked as a marine naturalist aboard a whale watch and snorkel cruise. Debbie lives in Minnesota with her husband, two sons, and three Siberian huskies. She especially enjoys writing early each morning; coaching youth soccer, hockey, lacrosse, and baseball; and dogsledding her kids to school. Her published works includethe Apocalyptic Thriller, 7G (now available in ebook and paperback at Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, World Castle Publishing, and many other online vendors) and the Young Adult Romance, Exiled to the North (released this October in ebook and paperback from Whiskey Creek Press). For more information, please visit her online.